I'm running a campaign for a solo druid. Said druid has a witch cohort. In last night's campaign, both the druid AND the cohort got infected with lycanthropy AND failed the Knowledge check to know about the curse. Their first transformation is going to happen next session.
What happens with their familiar and animal companion? Are there any automatic mechanical effects which kick in?
I was thinking the animal companion may not realize anything is wrong. His mistress changes shape all the time, including to wolves on occasion, and his INT is only 2.
The familiar -- those are basically tied to their master's soul, so I think the familiar would know something terrible is happening.
I may have them try and eat their animals. That would be particularly devastating for the witch.
The rules as written don't have a lot to say about the situation, but I think you're playing it straight - the animal companion will be clueless, while the familiar - though not necessarily familiar with lycanthropic lore - would definitely feel through the link that something's very, very wrong. As an aside, it might be best to have the druid's player take over control of his/her cohort's familiar once the lycanthropy kicks in - it'll give the player some way to influence events, even if it is a mute familiar. (If the familiar's a raven, of course, their ability to speak will be singularly handy in this particular situation.)
Would the familiar really think it's a horrible thing, though?
The familiar has at least 6 int. I would hope its smart enough not to get eaten... Besides, if you let it get eaten your just making the character almost entirely useless.
Can I ask what familiar it is?
I can't speak for anyone else, but my dog is smart enough to notice a dramatic change in attitude or personality. For example, the first weekend my dog met my grandmother, she tripped and broke her hip while we were visiting her. He uncharacteristically laid down next to her and tried to comfort her while we waited for the emergency response service. Personally, I wouldn't classify my dog as more than Int 2; maybe Int 3 if I were feeling generous, but I think that both creatures would be able to detect the drastic change in personality that their owners were going through, especially if neither character is Chaotic Evil (druid can't be).
This doubles when you remember that both the animal companion and the familiar have a link with their masters; this doubly so for the familiar, who has a much more powerful link. In short, they're going to know something is wrong the minute they start changing. Now, a better "option for attacking" is that either the animal companion or the familiar start trying to comfort their respect masters, not understanding that something is wrong.
A better question is, "What is the witch's level?" and "Does the witch have ranks in Knowledge skills?" A familiar uses its master's skill ranks for all purposes, so if the witch has sufficient knowledge of lycanthropes, the familiar does too, in which case it will know immediately what is going on.
All of this aside, killing off your player's animal companion and cohort is sort of a low blow. Hurting them is something I could get behind, personally, but outright killing them? Eh. Leaves a pour taste in my mouth. Considering all of the story potential of lycanthropy, using it to kill off your player's class features seems needlessly pointless and a bit of a jab at the player himself (or herself).
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Back when I was working on Ravenloft, my general take was that even a rampaging lycanthrope perceives its own familiar as "part of itself," and thus wouldn't attack it. The familiar, on the other hand, would still be assisting its bestial master to the best of its ability. The same spiritual connection doesn't exist regarding animal companions, however, so they don't get that protection. Unless, of course, the animal companion is the same sort of base animal that the lycanthrope turns into--then it could be accepted as a member of the hunting pack, so to speak.
Low intelligence means the creatures will not understand what is happening.
But a reasonable wisdom score means they will know it's something bad.
I think I'm going to arrange the scenario so that the animal companion sleeps through the whole thing in a conveniently out-of-sight-out-of-mind spot. It died of peluda poison recently and still has 2 negative levels from the Raise Animal Companion spell -- it's had enough grief lately. It's a boar, by the way.
The familiar is a fox, Cupris; the witch cohort, Ardulia, is level 6, and she has ranks in the following Knowledge skills: Arcana 6, History 5, Nature 1, Planes 1, Local 1, Religion 1.
When the initial infection occurred, I allowed a Knowledge check to know about how lycanthropy works. I couldn't find a definite "it's THIS knowledge skill" answer, so I settled on Arcana because it's a curse, and set the DC at 15 (same as the DC of the curse itself). The PC, Verdessa, has no ranks in Kn (Arcana). The witch cohort has 13 over all in Arcana -- all she had to do was roll a 2 or higher. But it came up a natural 1.
I think I'm leaning towards John Mangrum's approach of ruling the familiar as "part of itself", largely because losing a familiar is just SO devastating to a witch, and they do have important tasks to undertake. I may let him serve as a witness, and maybe take a claw swipe. He can tell them that they transformed into wolves even if they fail the Will saves to remember their nocturnal activities.
As for control of the events -- since this is strictly a solo campaign, I'm going to allow the player to occasionally make Will saves to influence her character's actions as I describe the scenario. In a regular group, you have other players who can make attempts to intervene and prevent your character from committing atrocities. In a solo group, that's not an option -- especially since both the PC AND her cohort got bitten. So I figure some Will saves to ameliorate the PC's actions a bit would help prevent the player from feeling totally railroaded.
Personally, I've always thought that the best portrayal of PC lycanthropy is the one where the PC doesn't get to see what he / she does during that time. They just sort of wake up and it happened. Like a time skip.
The PC is technically an NPC while transformed. You don't have to show NPCs anyway, and not knowing something builds a lot more horror for the PCs. :)
Hmm, good point. It would also save me having to work out a map, token, and such for use in Maptool.
Wanting to avoid a railroad is understandable, Tinalles: on the other hand, lycanthropy is something of a railroad by its nature. Simply 'skip time' to whenever the druid next regains consciousness; involuntary horror and loss of self-control is part and parcel of the werewolf* experience. Think of this particular adventure in the PC's career as a horror - or perhaps a mystery movie where the twist is that the detective is the one that murdered the victim. Allow the druid to determine what happened through the usual investigation/divination means, cooperate with any desire he/she has to make amends, and hope the player understands that these lapses of control will continue until a cure is arranged. I know one fellow who was a wererat for a while and would go to the town guard asking to be incarcerated on nights of the full moon...
* Or weretiger, or wereplatypus, or whatever
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